Isaiah 41:21-42:9

World English Bible

²¹ Produce your cause,” says Yahweh.
    “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.
²² “Let them announce and declare to us what will happen!
    Declare the former things, what they are,
    that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
    or show us things to come.
²³ Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
    that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do good, or do evil,
    that we may be dismayed,
    and see it together.
²⁴ Behold, you are nothing,
    and your work is nothing.
    He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵ “I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,
    from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name,
    and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,
    and as the potter treads clay.
²⁶ Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
    and before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’
Surely, there is no one who declares.
    Surely, there is no one who shows.
    Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
²⁷ I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’
    and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸ When I look, there is no man,
    even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.
²⁹ Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing.
    Their molten images are wind and confusion.

42 “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights:
    I have put my Spirit on him.
    He will bring justice to the nations.
² He will not shout,
    nor raise his voice,
    nor cause it to be heard in the street.
³ He won’t break a bruised reed.
    He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.
    He will faithfully bring justice.
⁴ He will not fail nor be discouraged,
    until he has set justice in the earth,
    and the islands wait for his law.”

⁵ God Yahweh,
    he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
    he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
⁶ “I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness.
    I will hold your hand.
    I will keep you,
    and make you a covenant for the people,
    as a light for the nations,
⁷     to open the blind eyes,
    to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
    and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

⁸ “I am Yahweh.
    That is my name.
    I will not give my glory to another,
    nor my praise to engraved images.
⁹ Behold, the former things have happened
    and I declare new things.
    I tell you about them before they come up.”